Late Schubert #2

Andreas Staier

Musique

The last voyage of Schubert begins in the most extreme simplicity: a serene melody that seems to rise up out of a dream, a dull pain accompanied by the subtle rumblings of the lower registers. Nothing in these first moments gives any hint of the depths of destitution and tenderness that the wanderer will confront along his route. Bathed in an enigmatic and supernatural light, the Sonata in B flat takes the listener by the hand, in the secret of a whispered confidence, to lead us along the long solitary road where joy and pain are but two sides of the same experience, the confrontation of oneself. To accomplish this intimate odyssey, who better to be our guide than Andreas Staier, who with sensitivity and love has revealed the myriad byways along this path for decades? On a pianoforte from the composer’s own era, he again brings out the natural colours of Schubert’s original timbres and accents with an artistry worthy of his exceptional talent.